esahubble_potw1830a July 23rd, 2018
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt
This image taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescopes Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) shows a beautiful spiral galaxy called NGC 6744. At first glance, it resembles our Milky Way albeit larger, measuring more than 200 000 light-years across compared to 100 000 light-year diameter for our home galaxy. NGC 6744 is similar to our home galaxy in more ways than one. Like the Milky Way, NGC 6744 has a prominent central region packed with old yellow stars. Moving away from the galactic core, one can see parts of the dusty spiral arms painted in shades of pink and blue; while the blue sites are full of young star clusters, the pink ones are regions of active star formation, indicating that the galaxy is still very lively. In 2005, a supernova, named 2005at, was discovered within NGC 6744, adding to the argument of this galaxys liveliness (not visible in this image). SN 2005at is a type Ic supernova, formed when a massive star collapses in itself and loses its hydrogen envelope.
Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA
Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1830a/
Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany
Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Telescope | Spectral Band | Wavelength | |
---|---|---|---|
Hubble (WFC2) | Optical (H-alpha + NIII) | 657.0 nm | |
Hubble (WFC3) | Optical (I) | 817.0 nm | |
Hubble (WFC3) | Optical (V) | 555.0 nm | |
Hubble (WFC3) | Optical (y) | 547.0 nm | |
Hubble (WFC3) | Optical (B) | 438.0 nm | |
Hubble (WFC3) | Optical (U) | 336.0 nm | |
Hubble (WFC3) | Ultraviolet (UV) | 275.0 nm | |
Detailed color mapping information coming soon...
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